Communication networks typically include numerous logical communication links between various items of equipment. Often a single logical communication link is implemented using several pieces of physical communication media. For example, a logical communication link between a computer and an inter-networking device such as a hub or router can be implemented as follows. A first cable connects the computer to a jack mounted in a wall. A second cable connects the wall-mounted jack to a port of a patch panel, and a third cable connects the inter-networking device to another port of a patch panel. A “patch cord” cross connects the two together. In other words, a single logical communication link is often implemented using several segments of physical communication media.
A network or enterprise management system (generally referred to here as a “network management system” or “NMS”) is typically aware of the logical communication links that exist in a network but typically does not have information about the specific physical layer media that are used to implement the logical communication links. Indeed, NMS systems typically do not have the ability to display or otherwise provide information about how logical communication links are implemented at the physical layer level.
Physical layer management (PLM) systems do exist. Conventional physical layer management (PLM) systems are typically designed to track connections that are made at a patch panel. That is, historically conventional PLM systems have been “patch panel centric” and have not included functionality to track connections that are made at active devices in a network (also referred to here as “network elements”). For example, such PLM systems typically do not automatically track connections that are made at network elements including a switch, router, hub, gateway, access point, server computer, end-user computer, appliance computers (such as network-attached storage (NAS) devices), and nodes of a storage area network (SAN) or other types of devices. Although there are management systems that are used to manage and collect information about such network elements, such management systems are typically separate from the PLM systems used to track connections made at a patch panel.
Some types of network elements utilize high speed optical fiber connectivity to interconnect ports from network elements such as servers, switches, and routers to other network elements. These network elements can be configured for use with a pluggable active optical module that converts a high speed serial electrical signal at a port of the network element to and from an optical signal. Such a pluggable active optical module can be integrated into a connector of a fiber optic cable or can be separate from any cable, which is commonly referred to as a pluggable active optical module (AOM). A pluggable AOM has an electrical connector on one side, for connection with a port of the network element, and one or more optical adapters on the other side for connection with a fiber optic cable. One example of a pluggable AOM is a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) module.
The mechanical and electrical interface between the network element and a pluggable active optical module is defined by a set of multi-source agreement (MSA) documents. These documents are based on functional requirements defined in IEEE standard 802.3 for Ethernet and T11 (X3T9.3) for Fiber Channel.